“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/13/17)

Festival Of Friendship

– Raw was in Las Vegas, we had a big WWE Raw Women’s Championship rematch between Champion Charlotte and Bayley and above all else, a “Festival Of Friendship” WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho was throwing for WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens. Add up all the ingredients and figure out where it can possibly go wrong. Exactly. To start the show, out came Commissioner Stephanie McMahon, which meant we got the old-fashioned 20-minute talking promo. Vintage Raw. She “gave” General Manager Mick Foley “the week off” and emasculated him without his presence this time. She went for the classic hometown cheap pop. Lord. Here comes Roman Reigns. Just why? This “Big Dog” nickname sounds so forced and won’t ever catch on. He demanded Braun Strowman, even though he’s guaranteed to face him at Fastlane on Mar. 5., like bro, can’t you wait? Real world exercise – ask your boss for your vacation and then a month before it approaches, demand it right now. See how that works out for you. From Steph’s point of view, why on earth would she oblige? We’re reminded she’s a heel and gets the crowd worked up for the prospect of it happening and then does the “boss” thing and prevents it because “she cares.” Cue the boos. She does announce that Strowman would face Mark Henry later. That sounds nice. She’s the boss, so she threatened Reigns and teased taking away the FL match and subsequent WrestleMania bonus. Reigns only got more aggressive in his stance, which drew WWE Raw Tag Team Champions, Luke Gallows/Karl Anderson. This can’t be good. They sucked up to Steph and suggested a Handicap match. Why wouldn’t she? Anderson sported a Club shirt that had similar fonts to the classic Bullet Club tee. Oh, subtle copying. Cue a mini-“brawl” where Referees have to pull them apart before we go to break. Let’s get to the match portion of things. Not much to write here, as the “numbers game” ran the pace, though Reigns powered in some offense. For some reason, the Champs ignored requests from the Referee to not beatdown their single opponent and were disqualified. Meh. Reigns fought out of the Magic Killer and then walked away. The Tag Champs don’t look any stronger and neither did Reigns. What exactly was this supposed to be?

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 12/5/16)

Tussle In Texas

– The opening video recapped last week, where the main highlight was WWE United States Champion Roman Reigns’ clean victory over WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens to earn a Universal Title shot at Roadblock: End Of The Line on Dec. 18. Also in that drama was the rift between Owens and his “best friend” Chris Jericho, as Owens denounced Jericho. We also were reminded that Seth Rollins threw Jericho around the arena parking lot to get his own revenge. Side note – the voiceover narrator sounded like a robot. Do we need to make Raw any more sleep-inducing?

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 10/24/16)

The Missing List Of Jericho

– With Hell In A Cell six days away and a decent Triple-Threat main event that pit Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins and WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens together and also another “Homecoming” for Brock Lesnar, we had some glitz to the go-home glamour. The in-ring segment with Rollins, Owens, Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and Jericho put the focus on the most entertaining part of the Rollins-Owens feud – the “best friendship” with Owens and Jericho. This time, the “twist” was that Jericho’s beloved List Of Jericho had been stolen. It says a lot about Jericho that he managed to get a big reaction from people about a fictional list. It was a classic Jericho sit-in, as he claimed the main event wouldn’t happen without his list. Owens’ involvement here raised our interest a bit since the first question was if he had the list, which he didn’t. Steph’s involvement made sense since she wanted Owens/Jericho on the same page to take out Rollins. Rollins here brought everything together as he possessed the list and took more cutesy jabs at the best friends’ with what he claimed was on the list. He finally brought it home as he used “list” terminology to sell their HIAC encounter with what injuries Owen would sustain. We also liked that he put over how he was victorious in the structure, which was an advantage he had. The hook here was that Rollins walked away with the list, which sent Jericho into a frenzy. Entertaining stuff.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 10/17/16)

Goldberg Returns

– With two weeks to go before yet another Pay-Per-View in Hell In A Cell, we started things off with arguably WWE’s most over duo – WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens/Chris Jericho. Their in-ring promo was excellent heel work, as Owens accused that Raw General Manager Mick Foley had a vendetta against him for his placement in the HIAC structure. Jericho drove the point home that HIAC wasn’t a reward and put over the dangers. Thank god. Jericho also mentioned how many legends he beat and that he should’ve beat Seth Rollins last week to get in on the HIAC Universal Title match, but “bad officiating” cost him. They also played up the legitimacy of Owens/Jericho’s friendship once more with Rollins’ help, which the live crowd took to. Rollins was more cutesy than usual (almost Roman Reigns-like) but because his target was Jericho, “Sparkle Crotch” went over well. We also had Rollins point out his two pedigrees on Jericho while Owens watched, to which the Champ’s retort was that Rollins only saw the worst in people and that was why he didn’t have any friends. Rollins suggested a rematch with Jericho, as we saw Jericho tell Owens he didn’t want him at ringside this time because he “knew his tricks.” They’ve teased the right amount of tension between Jericho/Owens, while Rollins slowly gets over as a babyface in the process.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 8/1/16)

Like A (Certified) Boss

– Things started with a blockbuster debut for the new Raw brand, highlighted with Finn Balor as he outlasted Roman Reigns after he won a previous Fatal Four-Way to earn the spot at SummerSlam to fight Seth Rollins to crown the first-ever WWE Universal Champion and with WWE Women’s Champion Sasha Banks as she beat Charlotte to end her 300-plus day reign. Mark this a new era, as we looked forward to seeing how Raw would follow their first episode, as it was the better show last week.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 7/4/16)

Independence Dud

– WWE and holidays never mix if you seek quality television. It was the Fourth Of July and America celebrated it’s 240th birthday with greasy grilled goodness and such. WWE threw on a three-hour Raw with the agenda of half-assedly pushing Battleground with holiday filler. It worked in some ways and was missable in many others. Case in point – the opening segment was your general locker room food party. The Golden Truth performed on stage before The Vaudevillains forced them off and then Aiden English had food thrown at him. WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz/Maryse warned everybody not to let it end in a food fight and sure enough, that’s what happened. Kevin Owens also got pied by someone in the face off-camera, Heath Slater went through a table, Darren Young sat with other heels and we knew we were in for one of “those” nights.

If I began to describe a six-foot tall, 300-pound man possessed with the ability to attack his foes with furious strength and also fly around like a human wrecking ball, you’d probably think it’s the latest James Bond villain or my newest created superstar on WWE 2K16.

That’s not the case however.

The man previously described is best known as current WWE United States Champion Rusev, the big Bulgarian whose already had an impressive career complete with a long once-undefeated streak, a lengthy US Title reign and a freaking tank entrance at WrestleMania 31 before he got to work with John Cena in what fans considered one of the show’s best matches.